Sharon vs. the Army

Ever since Israel's birth as a nation in 1948, the Israel Defense Forces
have enjoyed a position of uncommon esteem both in the country and
beyond. David Ben-Gurion once remarked that the I.D.F. was perhaps his
nation's most successful achievement. The London-based International
Institute for Strategic Studies this year rated the Israeli military as
the fourth most powerful in the world. Yet today, in the wake of the
Beirut massacre, many among the I.D.F.'s 172,000 regulars and 504,000
reservists are deeply demoralized.

That rising tide of anger and frustration is directed primarily at one
man: Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, a general and...